Warsaw Community High School held its first Pre-Prom Arrive Alive mock accident Friday ahead of today’s prom.
WCHS Principal Troy Akers said the high school partnered with Wawasee and Tippecanoe Valley school corporations in the early 2000s to do a mock accident at the Kosciusko County Fairgrounds, but it’s been many years since WCHS has put on a mock accident. Friday’s was the first one held at WCHS.
Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Fire Marshal Jeremy Williams said he talked to Akers about putting on the mock accident over the summer initially and at the beginning of the school year. It took much of the school year to bring it to fruition.
Williams said the Pre-Prom Arrive Alive program isn’t a new program and a lot of other schools do it, so he thought it could be brought to Warsaw.
Akers said in Friday’s reenactment juniors and seniors were seeing the results of impaired driving. He said compared to when the last mock accident was held at the fairground as to now, data shows impaired driving is down, but distracted driving among teen drivers has about tripled.

    Emergency personnel take a student on a gurnee to an ambulance during a mock accident at Warsaw Community High School Friday. Photo by Jackie Gorski, Times-Union
  

“It is something, whether you’re a young driver or an adult that can affect us all. So, hopefully, if this helps just one student to think and make a positive decision ... You know, it’s not limited to prom, it’s driving in general,” Akers said.
Williams said the benefits to putting the program on is having one person change their mind about drinking and driving. He hopes the mock accident can be put on every year or every other year.
Akers said the mock accident was held ahead of prom because prom is one of the biggest events during the school year and students are excited about prom that sometimes “they lose sight of the main thing, which is arriving at prom and everybody’s OK and getting home safely.”
Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Sgt. Doug Light said the mock accident is a good way for students to be reminded that while prom is a tradition, to be safe and smart while celebrating.
“It’s just a solid reminder that we want them to come home safe, that their parents want to come home safe,” Light said.
Both Kosciusko County Sheriff Jim Smith and Warsaw Police Department Chief Scott Whitaker spoke briefly to students about the possibilities of what could happen.
Smith said when his brother went to prom, he stayed out all night. When he went to drive the next morning, his brother fell asleep at the wheel, got into an accident and died.
“These things can happen,” he said, noting his parents were never the same. He cautioned students to be safe and to not ignore parents’ concerns of where they are. Smith told students to let their parents know where they are.
At the mock accident Friday were the WPD, KCSO, Lutheran EMS, WWFT and Kosciusko County Coroner’s Office.